Irrigation

Farmers consume nearly 90 percent of Colorado's water, and Colorado State University is offering ways for them to use it more efficiently. A grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to CSU's Center for Agricultural Energy will pay for reduced-cost irrigation efficiency audits for growers with center pivot systems.

Today's snow will soon be used to irrigate farms, but it won't be enough for a bumper crop. Water managers at the Ag Expo explained water issues through the lens of a drought that's lingered in the region since 2000. In some ways, things have worked out as they should, said Eric Kuhn, of the Colorado River Conservation District.

Farmers on the Fort Lyon Canal are worried about their water supplies following news that 14,600 acres of farms on the Fort Lyon Canal are being sold, with the price of some land going up to $3,600 an acre. Farmers say that makes it too costly to use the land for growing corn and hay. Pure Cycle Corp.

A simple instrument with a weight and a pulley confirmed what hydrologist Michelle Sneed had suspected after seeing more and more dirt vanish from the base of her equipment each time she returned to her research site last summer. The tawny San Joaquin Valley earth was sinking a half-inch each month. The reason was no mystery.

The feeling is inescapable, palpable, more than a little scary. I’m talking about California Water Anxiety Syndrome (CWAS), of course, that sinking feeling to trump all sinking feelings, that sour knot in the pit of the collective stomach, unnerving and strange and, let’s just admit, unutterably depressing. California, as you might have heard, is running out of water.

A bill passed a state House committee Monday that would allow all residents to use rain barrels to store water to be used for outdoor irrigation. "Many of the people I've spoken to think I'm joking when I tell them that the collecting of the rain off of your roof is illegal," bill sponsor Rep.

While President Obama vetoed the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline with great fanfare, Canadian politicians and agencies have for decades more quietly blocked water pipeline and diversion schemes. Pressure on Canada could grow as the U.S.

"Nearly a third of our SNOTEL sites in the Cascades and Sierra Nevada are reporting the lowest snowpack ever measured," NRCS Hydrologist Cara McCarthy said. "For the first time, some sites were snow-free on March 1st. These areas can expect reduced summer streamflow." Recent storms helped relieve dry conditions in the Southwest.